Serial Escalation/Tabletop Games: Difference between revisions

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== Card Games ==

* ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'':

** Early expansions made a game of one-upping each other, with every other expansion introducing a new "largest creature in the game." First there was the 8/8 [http://magiccards.info/al/en/103.html Force of Nature] in ''Alpha'', then the 9/9 [http://magiccards.info/aq/en/11.html Colossus of Sardia] in ''Antiquities'', then the 10/10 [http://magiccards.info/dk/en/29.html Leviathan] in ''The Dark'', then ''Ice Age''{{'}}s 11/11 [http://magiccards.info/ia/en/89.html Polar Kraken], and finally the 12/12 [http://magiccards.info/mr/en/280.html Phyrexian Dreadnought] in ''Mirage''. The process was spoofed in ''Unglued''{{'}}s [http://magiccards.info/ug/en/28.html B.F.M. (Big Furry Monster)], a 99/99 creature so big that he takes up two cards and wears "[[Continuity Nod|krakens and dreadnoughts for jewelry]]", and it was nostalgically revisited in ''Coldsnap'', which introduced [http://magiccards.info/cs/en/37.html Jokulmorder], a 12/12, as a nod to the set's gimmick of supposedly predating ''Mirage''.

*** They brought this trend back in Innistrad, where there are ''two'' 13/13 creatures, [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=221179 Ludevic's Test Subject] a blue 0/3 that transforms into a 13/13 if you pump enough mana into it before it dies, and [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=244740 Elbrus the Binding Blade], an artifact that becomes a 13/13 Demon.

** ''Unglued'' had cards with both [http://magiccards.info/ug/en/53.html the longest] and [http://magiccards.info/ug/en/36.html the shortest] names in the game at that time. Not to be outdone, ''Unhinged'' introduced [http://magiccards.info/uh/en/107.html a card whose name is so long it wraps completely around all four sides of the card] and [http://magiccards.info/uh/en/23.html a card with no name at all].

** ''Unglued'' also contained the card(s) with the largest mana cost, the aforementioned [http://magiccards.info/ug/en/28.html B.F.M.], whose 15 black mana symbols stretched across the entire top line of the card. Once again, ''Unhinged'' decided to top it with [http://magiccards.info/uh/en/121.html Gleemax], a card which costs 1,000,000 mana. Yes, that's one million mana. I hope you brought your [http://magiccards.info/uh/en/124.html Mox Lotus].

== Tabletop RPG ==

== War Games ==

* ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' asks you a few simple questions: How much [[Crapsack World|worse]] can we make this galaxy? How many [[Knight Templar|atrocities]] can we get the [[Church Militant|Imperium]] to commit today? How many more [[Redshirt Army|Imperial Guardsman]] can we kill in ''this'' battle? How much more hopeless can the wars against the [[Bug War|Tyranids]] and [[Robot War|Necrons]] become? What further [[Cosmic Horror|madness]] can spew from the [[Negative Space Wedgie|Eye of Terror]] this week? And most importantly of all... how much [[More Dakka|Dakka]] can we fit into one vehicle?

** Then there's Wazdakka Gutzmek, an Ork Big Mek whose lifelong ambition is to built the most awesomest bike in the 'ooniverse. How awesome? Well, he used it to ram into the cockpit of a [[Humongous Mecha|Titan]] and kill the people inside. For his next trick he'll try fitting it with a fully functional warp-drive, so that he can ride from one side of the galaxy to the other (and shoot anything that gets in the way)!

** His bike has so many flashy gubbinz that it's one looted antigrav system from being a jetbike, has no less than three large guns that can all be fired at once (going by the wording in his entry), and the man himself has been depicted in art with a ''chainsaw claw''.

** How much bigger of a threat can [[Ciaphas Cain|Ciaphas Cain, Hero Of The Imperium]] [[Fake Ultimate Hero|defeat by accident]]? How uncertain can his heroism/dirty cowardice be? How many times can Jurgen save the day without making it into the histories? How much more [[Subtext]] can we pile in?

** Even on the mundane note, a boltgun (standard small arms) weighs about 7.5 kilograms and fires .75 caliber rounds. That's right, it weighs twice as much as a modern M16, has ''three times'' the barrel diameter, and fires ''armor piercing high-explosive rockets'', ''and'' manages to have a 50% larger standard magazine to boot. It is amazing what players take in stride.

** While it may not be as [[Egregious]] an example, the swords in this universe run on combustion engines, the tanks (designed by [[Ninja Zombie Pirate Robot|superhuman werewolf]] [[Space Wolf|space vikings]]) are powered by hydrocarbon-fission-fusion cells, and the space ships are powered by SLAVE LABOR.

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